A married Texas businessman and father of two became attached to a Nashville, Tennessee escort and was then blackmailed by his lover.
Erik Charles Maund, an Austin-based auto company heir, received an anonymous threatening text about a month after his extramarital fling with 33-year-old Holly Williams, demanding $25,000.
Over the next 11 days, the situation spiraled out of control. Maund’s privately funded investigation into who sent extortion claims turned into a murder-for-hire plot involved a retired member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and two retired US Marines.
On March 12, 2020, the day after Maund was supposed to pay, Williams and her then-boyfriend William Lanway, who sent the blackmail text, were found dead at a Nashville construction site with bullet holes in their heads.
Three years later, a federal jury found Maund guilty of masterminding their murders after an 11-day trial.
Maund’s attorney did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Former Marines – Bryon Brockway and Adam Carey – were also convicted on November 17 for their roles in the conspiracy.
Former IDF member Gilad Peled pleaded guilty before the trial and became the prosecution’s main witness.
Erik Charles Maund was found guilty of murder-for-hire conspiracy to kill an escort he had hired. Metro Nashville P.D
Peled’s attorneys declined to comment before sentencing, and attorneys for Brockway and Carey did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“This investigation began with the discovery of two homicide victims, Holly Williams and William Lanway, in a vehicle off a construction road in West Nashville on Good Friday 2020,” Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said in a statement after the conviction.
“Months of excellent investigative work … provided multiple leads that drew our attention to other states. Recognizing that this complex criminal case reaches far beyond Nashville, our team is seeking the assistance of the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office.”
Maund, Brockway and Carey each face life in prison or the death penalty and will be sentenced separately in 2024. The judge will take Peled’s cooperation into account when sentencing him.
Extension: ‘I’ll meet you at the bar like last time’
Maund texted Williams that he “can’t wait” to see her when she arrives in Nashville in February 2020, according to court documents reviewed by Fox News Digital.
“Have a beautiful day! Looking ahead too [sic] later I’m in Nashville. I’ll see you at the bar like last time. Text me when you arrive,” he texted the escort on Feb. 5, 2020, the federal indictment said.
Maund told his wife he was visiting their son at college, Peled said, according to a transcript of his testimony.
The two connected about a year earlier, according to court documents. Early February 2020 is the second round.
When the calendar turns to March, the threatening texts begin.
A federal jury found Maund guilty of masterminding the murders of Holly Williams and the murders of William Lanway after an 11-day trial. William Lanway/Facebook
Maund ‘has no intention’ of paying the $25,000 extortion
Lanway “sent a series of texts” on March 1, 2020, demanding a “monetary payment” or he would reveal Maund’s relationship with Williams, the indictment said.
The text came from Williams’ phone, and Maund did not recognize the sender at the time.
The next morning, Maund called Peled and agreed to pay him $60,000 to “start an investigation” into who sent the text.
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“He told me that he went to visit his son in Nashville, Tennessee, where he went to college, and while he was there, he used an escort service,” Peled testified, according to the transcript.
“When she came back, she got text messages – text messages demanding money … and if she didn’t pay them, they were going to contact her family and find out the fact that she was using an escort service.”
Peled said there was no discussion of the murders of Lanway or Williams; it’s an investigation into who sent the text. Peled then told Maund that he wanted to take the case to law enforcement.
The prosecutor asked what Maund’s reaction was.
“He was reluctant (to go to the police),” Peled said, according to the transcript. “He didn’t want the information to come out, saying it would affect his marriage.
“He didn’t want his children to know about it. He said it would destroy him if his children found out.”
From there, Peled recruited a family friend, Brockway, who introduced Carey to the group. Both are retired Marines.
They set up a team, including Peled, to travel from Austin, Texas, to Nashville to track and monitor Williams and Lanway while providing daily updates to Maund via an encrypted communications app, Peled testified.
They were unsuccessful in making contact with their target after 10 days, according to Peled’s testimony, and Lanway was “surprised” when Lanway called Maund’s home at that time.
The bodies of Holly Williams and William Lanway were found in Williams’ car on the morning of March 13, 2020. Metro Nashville PD
Lanway set a deadline of 8 p.m., March 11, 2020, to hand over the $25,000, Peled testified.
Missions hit wall after wall. Peled describes a panicked Maund, and Brockway goes to Nashville himself “to fix the problem.”
“What is (Brockway’s) proposal?” asked the prosecutor to Peled.
“He suggested, in his words, to take Mr. Lanway out,” Peled testified.
He said that he expected Maund to reject the idea, but instead Maund “jumped at the offer.”
$100,000 each for Brockway and Carey to complete the work
Peled said Brockway was “surprised” when Maund agreed, according to the transcript.
After negotiating the price, Maund agreed to pay $100,000 each to Brockway and Carey. He also paid $550,000 to Peled, according to court documents.
Peled testified that overnight March 12 and 13, Brockway told him to “put your phone away.” The prosecutor asked him what he meant.
“I understand that they killed them,” Peled replied, according to the transcript.
Brockway killed Lanway in the parking lot of Williams’ apartment complex, and Carey killed Williams after driving to a construction site, court documents said.
That’s where they left their bodies.
“She’s really good at what she does in medical aesthetics,” her friend and fellow esthetician Marie Carroll told The Tennessean in December 2021. Metro Nashville PD
Guilty
After an 11-day jury trial, Maund was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
A jury acquitted him of kidnapping-related charges.
Carey and Brockway were each convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, kidnapping resulting in death and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
Each defendant faces life in prison or the death penalty.
“We are committed to aggressively prosecuting violent crime in Middle Tennessee, and I am very pleased that the men responsible for these murders have finally been held accountable for their deplorable actions,” U.S. Attorney Henry Leventis said in a statement.
Remembering the victims
Williams was working as a medical esthetician when he was killed. Friends and family told The Tennessean that she will be remembered as a sweet and dependable person.
“She’s really good at what she does in medical aesthetics,” her friend and fellow esthetician Marie Carroll told The Tennessean in December 2021.
“If you meet her, she looks like a Kardashian and you don’t know what to expect. But then he makes you feel involved immediately. He’s very humble and like really quiet but just sweet.”
Lanway reportedly grew up in a violent household and led a difficult life.
When he was a child, his father held him hostage at gunpoint. A week later, his father fatally stabbed his mother, The Tennessean reported.
He married and had a daughter, described as “the light of his life,” according to a local newspaper, but she died at age 5 of brain cancer.
Lanway and Williams’ relationship was volatile, friends and family told The Tennessean, which reported he called the police on her at least three times the year she died.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
